This invention relates to candleholders, including candleholders suitable for outdoor use such as at a gravesite, a memorial, a garden or a campsite and also candleholders for indoor use, such as in a church or place of worship.
A variety of candleholders, including ones that include some form of cover for the candle or candles are already known and used. For example, candle stick holders are commonly used in homes so that candles can be lit and held safely when they are used as needed or desired. These candleholders can take a variety of forms and they are often quite decorative in nature. For example, candle stick holders made of glass, crystal and decorative metal such as silver or silver plate are well known.
It is also known to provide candleholders for use outdoors which are not only able to hold one or more candles but are also able to cover the candle or candles to provide some protection from the wind and weather. These candle holders can come in a variety of shapes and sizes and they can be provided with one or more glass sidewalls so that the candle and its light can be seen. If the candleholder is in the form of an enclosure with a closed off top, some form of holes must be provided for ventilation purposes or otherwise the candle will quickly extinguish itself for lack of oxygen. One known difficulty with some candleholders currently on the market is that the holes in the enclosure often are provided for decorative purposes and therefore they are arranged and sized in such a manner that they provide little protection from the wind. With candleholders of this type, there is a substantial risk of the candle being quickly blown out.
Another known difficulty with known memorial candleholders designed for outdoor use is that they can be reasonably expensive in view of the types of materials used for their manufacture and therefore they are not particularly suited for one or two occasions when their use is desired. Also, because of the expense of these candleholders, the owners of these candleholders may be reluctant to leave them at a memorial or gravesite for fear that they will be damaged or possibly stolen. Also, there is a difficulty that many cemeteries fail to provide any storage facility for memorial candleholders designed for use over a long period of time or on many occasions.
One early form of lantern or candleholder designed to be mounted on the ground outside is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 1,388,267 issued Aug. 23, 1921 to E. C. Kneip. This candleholder includes a base section with a horizontal plate and a downwardly extending, cylindrical support that can be pushed into the ground. The candle or candle container is placed in the center of the horizontal plate and is surrounded by an annular wall. The wall helps to hold the bottom of a chimney, the vertical sides of which can be made from transparent glass. The chimney is covered with a conical hood and air holes are provided near the top of the chimney. Difficulties with this device include the fact that it or at least a portion thereof can be readily removed or stolen by persons other than the owner if left at a gravesite and, because of its use of a glass chimney it might be easily broken, particularly by a vandal.
A more recent memorial light apparatus is that taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,787,017 which issued Nov. 22, 1988. In this memorial light system, there is a base box with a hinged lid, the box having a size sufficient to accommodate a lantern or candleholder. The base box is designed to be mounted underground with only its top section projecting above ground level. The lantern structure has vertically extending sidewalls that can be made of glass or a high temperature plastic. Ventilation holes are formed in the base of the lantern enclosure. A metal attachment member is provided in the center of the base box lid and this can be used to secure the lantern in place on top of the lid when it is desired to use same. Although this known memorial light system overcomes some of the deficiencies in earlier candleholder units, it still suffers from some deficiencies including the cost of building same and inadequate ventilation openings for the candle or candles. Also, if glass is used for the lantern body, the lantern body may be subject to damage, particularly when it is mounted in the exposed position on top of the base box.
It is one object of one aspect of the invention tp provide an improved candleholder that is formed with unique openings located between the candle supporting surface and the top of the candleholder, these openings permitting good ventilation while at the same time allowing the candle(s) to be seen.
The candleholders described herein can provide advantages over existing candleholders, particularly those designed for use outdoors such as at a grave site. For example, according to one preferred embodiment, the candleholder can be made quite inexpensively while at the same time having a pleasing appearance and providing proper ventilation for the candle or candles. In a particularly preferred embodiment of the inexpensive candleholder, the ventilation holes are arranged and constructed in a manner that helps to prevent a gust of wind or a steady blowing wind from blowing the candle out.
In another version of the present candleholders, the candleholder is provided with a main housing which is adapted for mounting below ground level and which can be used for storing the remainder of the candleholder including a cover section in a unique manner when the candleholder apparatus is not in use.